AUGUST. 325 



South American Travels, in 1801, and it is said that in 

 a transport of admiration he fell upon his knees and 

 fervently expressed aloud his sense of the power and 

 magnificence of the Creator in his works ! The ear- 

 liest mention of the plant in print was in 1832, in 

 Floriep's Notizen, where it was styled Euryale Ama- 

 zonica. Little attention, however, was paid to it, till 

 Sir ROBERT SCHOMBUEGH when investigating the 

 natural productions of British Guiana, again met 

 with it in the river Berbice, in 1837, and addressed a 

 glowing account of it with drawings and specimens to 

 the London Botanical Society. He says "we arrived 

 at a part where the river expanded and formed a cur- 

 rentless basin. Some object on the southern extremity 

 of this basin attracted my attention, and I was unable 

 to form an idea of what it could be ; but animating 

 the crew to increase the rate of their paddling, we 

 soon came opposite the object which had raised my 

 curiosity, and behold, a vegetable wonder ! All cala- 

 mities were forgotten; I was a botanist, and felt 

 myself rewarded ! There were gigantic leaves five to 

 six feet across, flat, with a broad rim lighter green 

 above, and vivid crimson below, floating upon the 

 water ; while in character with the wonderful foliage 

 I saw luxuriant flowers, each consisting of numerous 

 petals, passing in alternate tints from pure white to 

 rose and pink. The smooth water was covered with 

 the blossoms, and as I rowed from one to the other I 

 always found something new to admire. The flower- 

 stalk is an inch thick near the calyx, and studded with 

 elastic prickles about three-quarters of an inch long. 

 "When expanded, the four-leaved calyx measures a foot 

 in diameter, but is concealed by the expansion of the 



